Chapter 20
It was another sunny day near the outer layers of the Daemon Forest. The area was not too dense, with widely spaced trees and shrubs. However, the roads were still filled with danger from both beasts and humans. Bandits would often rob and pillage passing carriages of hunters and medicinal plant harvesters. The town of Dis seemed powerless to get rid of these criminals.
In a small valley, still hundreds of miles away from the town, the sounds of swords clashing could be heard. A group of about 20 people was chasing and fighting a young woman and a young man—Shin Jiao and Cherry Lao, who were slowly traveling toward the town.
When Shin Jiao had fainted while receiving the information from the silver pages, Cherry Lao saw the pages turn to dust. After she explained what happened, Shin Jiao tried to remember the information, but to no avail. It was as if a gray area in his mind prevented him from accessing anything. They decided to forget about it, thinking it might have been a trap.
The only thing Shin Jiao noticed was that his body felt lighter and his reflexes were faster. He didn't understand what was happening, as he still couldn't access his dantian and its energy. It felt as though his body had been upgraded to another level. Of course, he didn't tell Cherry Lao, as he couldn't explain it himself. After resting for a day, they decided to continue their journey.
Now, the 20 people chasing them were a group of bounty hunters from three different factions who had come to an agreement. Even with two Gold Core Realm members, they were unable to defeat Cherry Lao because they found her martial skills and her use of cultivation energy to be terrifyingly precise.
Through their constant life-and-death encounters with beasts and bandits, Cherry Lao had discovered how to precisely control her cultivation energy and apply the proper amount of force in every attack. Even her spiritual sense was becoming so refined that she was on the verge of comprehending her Domain. However, since she was still in the primary stages of the Gold Core Realm, her energy wasn't yet sufficient to break through that barrier. With this new understanding, fighting multiple opponents wasn't difficult for her. Since her cultivation didn't seem to be improving no matter how hard she tried, she decided to focus on finesse and precise control. Combined with her new Sword Heart, she became like a shadow of death in a fight.
"Shit! Boss Lee, this woman is hard to deal with! It's like she's just toying with us. If we keep fighting like this, we're all going to die," shouted a man in his thirties wearing a red robe with a fire insignia, who belonged to the Fire Dragon Mercenary group.
Boss Lee was a fat, middle-aged man holding a large, flat saber. All 20 people in his group had wounds all over their bodies, while the two they were hunting were still in their clean clothes and unharmed. The group ganged up on Cherry Lao but were unable to hurt her. Flying swords and spells bombarded her, but without using her energy as a shield, she would simply blur and leisurely escape their attacks unscathed. They didn't know that she sometimes got small scrapes, but her enchanted robe protected her. Still, this was unacceptable to Cherry Lao. She was a very competitive woman and couldn't stand being hit, so she continued to dodge while feigning attacks so her opponents wouldn't realize she was using them for sparring practice.
"Arrghhh! Brothers! This mortal isn't normal. Please help!"
The group was interrupted by a blood-curdling shout. They saw their comrade, a primary-stage Spirit Refining Realm cultivator, on the ground with a missing right hand. He had been the one to volunteer to kill Shin Jiao, as he was the weakest of the group, and no one wanted to waste their time on a mere mortal.
"Hmm... this is too weird," Shin Jiao thought, standing there in a daze. "Before, I clearly had a hard time dodging attacks from Level 2 beasts and was almost unable to penetrate a Qi shield, having to rely on the sharpness of my weapon. But why are his movements so slow? Maybe humans are truly weaker than beasts; that's the only explanation."
Alarmed, the group wondered how a mere mortal could injure a Spirit Refining Realm cultivator. The situation seemed absurd and unreal, as they saw mortals as nothing more than punching bags and easy prey. But now, seeing one of their own on the ground with a missing arm, everyone became wary of Shin Jiao.
"You two, take him down!" Boss Lee shouted, pointing at two of his subordinates in the late stages of the Spirit Refining Realm.
The two men quickly dashed toward Shin Jiao, brandishing their swords. One of them chopped toward Shin Jiao's head, and the other formed a seal, conjuring a fireball to throw at Shin Jiao's body. Shin Jiao didn't relax; he held his sword in a fighting stance, ready to defend himself. He wasn't confident in facing two Spirit Refining cultivators with such dense Qi.
Then he saw it again. This time he truly noticed something was happening—that he had gained a strange ability. He saw the two human figures moving in very slow motion, like a movie. When he saw this, he relaxed and smiled.
Suddenly, his face turned pale and terror-stricken because they had moved too fast for him to see. Luckily, his reaction was also quick, and he was able to evade the blade aimed at his head. However, the fireball grazed his shoulder, burning part of his clothes. He staggered and felt the heat and pain on his right shoulder. After their initial attack, the two didn't stop. The one with the sword launched a quick slash toward Shin Jiao's waist, aiming to cut him in half. The other chanted some words and took out a fire talisman. Seeing this and feeling the pain in his shoulder, Shin Jiao became vigilant. Once again, he found the swordsman's movements becoming sluggish.
A sudden realization dawned on Shin Jiao. He now had an inkling of what his skill was and how to use it. All he had to do was focus on an enemy, and their movements would become sluggish. With this, Shin Jiao became confident in facing the two cultivators. If he didn't have this skill, he would have had a hard time fighting them. If it were one-on-one, Shin Jiao had the confidence to at least win, though judging by the swordsman's skill, he was more proficient than Wolf. His cultivation might have been lower, but his speed was faster.
After seeing his opponents' second wave of attacks, Shin Jiao quickly devised a plan, as he didn't know how long he could see their movements in slow motion. He moved, evading the blade by shifting to his left, and threw a punch at the man's chest. After that, he quickly ran toward the other man who was chanting a fire spell. He needed to stop him quickly because the spiritual energy the talisman emitted was a trapping spell. When he reached the man, he chopped at his neck. However, he was unable to judge his speed and the force, and the man's carotid artery was severed, with blood starting to flow from his mouth.
To the onlookers, his movements were a blur. All they saw was the swordsman flying backward like a cannonball, leaving a trail of blood, and the chanting man suddenly collapsing and bleeding.
"What the hell did you do?" Boss Lee shouted in anger.
Shin Jiao was dumbfounded upon seeing that he had accidentally killed the two who attacked him. He hadn't exerted much effort and just attacked as he normally would. What he didn't know was that the speed of his movement was added to his strength, and an invisible energy covered his hand upon impact, protecting his skin and bones from breaking.
Cherry Lao wore a beautiful smile. She felt a sudden surge of happiness seeing Shin Jiao's fast movements and power. Any girl would want her man to be strong and capable. She felt truly happy, but her heart ached at the knowledge that no matter how strong or skillful Shin Jiao was, he was still a mortal and had a very short lifespan. Thinking about this, she discovered that her heart ached and her mind filled with anxiety. A sudden realization made her want to tear up, because no matter how she denied it, what she realized was the truth.
"This... this is the reason why I can't focus on my cultivation? Do I have to make a choice? But..." she thought, sadness filling her heart.
The rest of the bounty hunters became a little scared. They tried to reconfirm the aura in Shin Jiao's body and saw that there was no spiritual fluctuation. This made them confused and scared at the same time.
"We... we must kill the mortal first! Attack!" Boss Lee shouted as he waved his sword, which he covered in ice. "Die!"
The rest of the people suddenly moved at the same time, their target being Shin Jiao. This woke Cherry Lao from her deep thought. She also jumped and dashed toward the nearest guy. This time, her goal was to finish them, as they were now a threat to Shin Jiao. But before she could get close, a sword flew toward her, blocking her path. The man wearing the Fire Dragon Mercenary robe, who seemed to be their leader, stood in front of her.
"Miss Cherry Lao, I can't let you interfere with them. I will be your opponent," he said.
Cherry Lao sneered at the man. She didn't think twice and hacked toward his head. The man quickly dodged, but a part of his hair was cut.
"You damned bitch! How dare you sneak attack me!" he suddenly shouted.
"This is a frontal fight. You blocked my path, so I must kill you. What nonsense are you spouting?" she nonchalantly said, changing her sword position and stabbing toward the man.
The man used his spiritual Qi to create a barrier to protect himself. But before he could react, he felt something was wrong as he didn't feel or see any collision with his Qi barrier. Then a cold voice was heard behind him: "This is a sneak attack."
This startled him, and he found a bloody sword tip protruding from his chest. The man's vision suddenly dimmed as his life force began to ebb away.
After killing her opponent, she spread her spiritual sense, and her face suddenly showed shock. She quickly turned around and saw the rest of the people on the ground, either dead or barely alive. She couldn't believe what she was seeing, as Shin Jiao was also on the ground, panting heavily.
"Shin, are you okay?" Cherry Lao quickly rushed to his side.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Just too tired to move. I guess this is the aftereffect of using my strength."
"Are your... strength back?" she asked with a little hesitation, as she had been discouraged by his answers before.
And indeed, she felt discouraged and helpless once more upon hearing his calm response. "No... not yet. I don't know what this is, but I will try to find out."
"Okay, we need to leave this area now. We don't want another group to find us. It would be more troublesome," Cherry Lao said. She walked toward the rest of the men and finished off those who were still alive, took their bags, and burned the bodies to ash.
That night, they once again stayed in a man-made cave. After dinner, Cherry Lao seemed a little unsettled, which Shin Jiao noticed.
"Cherry, is something wrong?" Shin Jiao asked as he sat beside her.
She just lowered her head and didn't answer, seeming to be in deep contemplation that Shin Jiao didn't disturb. After a few minutes, Cherry Lao bit her lips, her eyes a little moist. Then she looked at Shin Jiao with melancholy.
"Shin, do you... do you love me?" she asked.
"Of course... We've spent a lot of time together, and in those times, I've learned to love you deeply. Why? Are you doubting how I feel? Heh, heh... If you want, we can..." Shin Jiao replied with a slight teasing tone.
"Shameless... you... I'm serious here. I think I found out why I can't progress with my cultivation," she said with a little resolve in her gaze.
"Really? What should we do then? I know your dream is to be strong and someday become an immortal. I will do all I can to help you," Shin Jiao said excitedly.
"The reason why I... my progress is stagnant is... because... of you..."